The leadership of Concerned Democrats has monitored the air waves and a lot of publications in the media houses ever since Hon. Alban Bagbin, a senior member of our party NDC, openly expressed his own candid opinions about how his own NDC government is currently ruling the country. We wish to highlight some of the major disquieting issues that took place after Hon. Alban Bagbin's open 'criticisms' of his government's lack of 'political will' to deal with the current corrupt practices in Ghana and his inability to get the president privately advised. It is highly pitiable that the so-called intellects who apparently were missing in action during the campaign days have described Hon. Alban Bagbin as an enemy within our party. First and foremost, Hon. Alban Bagbin expressed his utmost dissatisfaction about how pressing issues that are militating against the fulfilment of the 2012 Campaign Promises were left unattended to by the leadership of the NDC govt. Exactly how these comments were misinterpreted as open condemnation of the President is hard to believe. In consequence of this deliberate misinterpretation and political red herring, all kinds of ruderal or non-existent organizations sprang up from nowhere to insult Hon. Alban Bagbin as having attacked the President personally. What about the issues raised which most senior members of the party were well aware of, albeit being very much afraid to air them?

We Concerned Democrats are of the view that fighting injustice requires us to be resolute and approachable. Our society can hardly progress if at this material moment we never embrace qualities of truth, equity, accountability and integrity. In Stan Dogbe’s needless rebuttal, he arrogantly and childishly described Hon. Alban Bagbin as a liar. We would like to know from Stan Dogbe and his likes whether Hon. Alban Bagbin was not perfectly right when said the President is totally naked if people like his (Stan Dogbe’) type are presidential staffers. One, but most probably the least shocking, was what the public heard from Hon. Victoria Hammah’s (former deputy minister of communication) leaked tape. Do you know when the most shocking ones will be aired or what has been done after Bagbin’s well-motivated suggestions to prevent others from being leaked? Give time a chance.

Equally disgusting was what Dr. Clement Apark, also presidential staffer, said. This gullible presidential staffer said that if he knew that Hon. Bagbin had wanted to meet the president, he would have arranged a meeting for them. What an insult to the integrity of the former health minister. We wonder why newcomers like his type, a PNC card-bearing member, should have said that now that Bagbin’s own party is in power. He should retract all those irresponsible statements and render unqualified apology to the Hon. Alban Bagbin. A certain group known as Kayayei Youth Association Ghana also issued a press statement (in The Enquirer, 8/11/2013) purporting to be speaking on behalf of Northerners and sought to criticize Hon. Bagbin for being a Northerner and yet openly criticized a fellow Northerner who is the President. On the contrary, Hon. Bagbin never attacked the President in person. We advise the leadership of the said group to re-listen to what Hon. Bagbin said and accordingly retract their press statement and apologize to him.

We would like to use this opportunity to urge the President to courageously fast-truck and accordingly discipline all those who were cited in Gyeeda Report, at least to remedy the sinking image of our dear party. In fulfilment of our 2012 Campaign Manifesto, the criterion used to distribute the 50 senior high schools need to be made known to the public especially by the Ministry of Education. Concerned Democrats also strongly advise govt ministers and other appointees to start responding to calls and be approachable if not we will equally advise them on air.
The second observation is the calls from the general public on HE John Mahama to weed out miscreants that have engulfed his presidency. The Founder is privy to information that he (JM) is unaware of and reserves the right to advise the president, for the one constructing a road does not know how crooked the road is. We the Concerned Democrats highly respect the views of the party Founder and call on the President to take the necessary steps to address this issue. As stated by Niccolò Machiavelli, as we quote Prince, “The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.” Your Excellency, the future of the NDC as far as electoral victory is concerned depends largely on the men and women steering the affairs of the state and connecting with the grassroots and how proactive and innovative they are. Undoubtedly, our great party is immensely blessed with such personalities. Before writing this press statement, we asked a good friend of ours who was very good at current affairs and could mention the names of all the ministers and government appointees of past governments such as those of JJ and Kufour. Unfortunately, this time they failed our test and could not mention the names of both the substantive and deputy ministers of very important ministries. Their reasons simply are that they hardly hears of them publicly discussing government policies or their own developmental initiative(s).

We conclude by calling on His Excellency, The President; His Excellency, Founder JJ Rawlings; Hon. Bagbin; Hon. Martin Amidu; Civil Society Groups and investigative journalists to help curtail the seemingly uncontrolled corruption in Ghana.
Long live Ghana! Long live NDC!

Signed by:
Mr. Ali Justice (Communications Director, Concerned Democrats)